This is not a surprise. It happened last year too. My jeweler friend was still buying it last year when this happened and started filling up a trash can hoping to eventually sell it when the prices came back down. He said people still need money even though he couldn’t sell it at the time.
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Oh, the powers that be are playing games again with our $$, and what they want us to belive we can do with it. Just hold. No one needs to sell yet anyway. It’s still going up.
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Interestingly, this doesn’t ever stop them from selling at top dollar, or requiring us to pay spot +++ for milled sterling and gold sheet, wire, and casting grain. However, it does belie the myth of a shortage of the material contributing to higher prices. The amount of silver and gold currently in circulation, and in private hands sitting in drawers, safes and jewelry boxes is actually massive. If it were all to come on the market today, prices would plummet which has to be a major factor for why refineries are refusing to buy.
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My family has been in the precious metals business for 3 generations. There are definitely cycles but this one has been unprecedented. It will definitely have a negative impact on the fine jewelry industry, a lot of which is imported.
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Many of the big silver refiners are so overwhelmed with the influx of scrap silver that they have added a surcharge and a lag time for returning refining lots.
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Thanks for your response @Ziacat! I’ve known the Simpsons (owners of Twin Rocks) for years and always enjoyed Twin Ricks…both the shop and the gorgeous landscape. They are from a family with a long ties in the Native American trading post community. My first experience there was over 25 years ago on a trip with a now deceased friend. He introduced us to Steve and Barry, and Steve (I believe) spent a long time discussing Navajo basketry, and various Navajo artists. They are extremely knowledgable and care deeply about the Navajo people. It’s definitely not a low end discount trading post, and although much smaller than Garlands, they carry a variety of similar pieces by exceptional artists. It’s the type of shop that should be supported by the collectors who value both native peoples and quality pieces.
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The “Native American” jewelry market is a prime example of this fact. Most of our forum members are well aware of this, but I think the American public would be shocked to learn just how much jewelry attributed to Native craftspeople is imported from Asia and especially China, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.
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I mentioned this before (prob in the thread I did on Twin Rocks), but you mentioned the shop a couple years ago on here, and that’s what helped me decide to get back out there. I had learned about them decades ago from my Trading Post Guidebook, where they were recommended as a must do visit.
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Im having a hard time figuring out what is going on with precious metals especially silver. I just read that China does their own spot pricing and have it priced at $120 per ounce. Everyone in the chat talks like the sky is falling and the monetary system will collapse. I don’t like fretting over things that may not happen so I’d rather not visit these sites. What is really going on with these metals? Thanks.
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I wouldn’t worry too much, people have been thinking the sky is falling ever since I was a kid. Now just don’t make me switch to Bitcoin 
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You’re too funny. It’s probably not a bad idea to have a little BTC. Diversification is important. The markets are such a game.
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And that’s why years ago we hired a financial guy 
My sis is a CFA who used to try to get me interested in stocks; “It’s fun!” She’d say. I’d be like, if you gave me a choice I would rather get my teeth worked on….so she gave up. My hubby has a better feel for finances, and that is just fine with me.
Glad I could give you a laugh!
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Last time it was primarily China, but this strategy could be used by BRICS nations acting in concert to convert existing paper currencies to precious metals assets, with each round of paper currency buying accelerating and multiplying hard asset valuation increases.
It could also be us.
Whoever is doing this seems to be pumping up metals prices, taking profits then immediately rolling the proceeds over into buying increasing amounts of the assets driving prices even higher, Rinse, repeat, in accelerating cycles.
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Interestingly if the goal is to leverage fiat paper into hard assets, ultimately there’s no real incentive to dump hard assets in favor of fiat paper profits.
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Interestingly, COMEX futures only has silver at $50.79 while the regular market has it trading at $53+. Now $52+. Can’t keep up with this market.
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If current trends continue, I expect we’ll continue to see incremental small selloffs followed by immediate increases as profits are rolled into incrementally increasing asset volumes. As @nanc9354 pointed out, there’s a surprising amount of short interest in the market, and that could really accelerate things as we move along.
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You’re right. China and the BRICS got together to get away from dollar dominance. No one wants our bonds like they used to. China will sell their rare earth metals but you can’t pay in dollars.
Do we buy silver on the dip?
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